CEDAR PARK, TX It's easy to become overwhelmed in the hustle and bustle of today's society. For many, dealing with day-to-day challenges pose very real consequences that disrupt mental and physical wellness and finding meaningful ways to disconnect may be met with difficulty. There are, however, helpful ways to regain focus and mental clarity. Requiring little more than patience and time, meditation is a valuable tool used to yield positive effects and benefits.

Meditation is the practice of training the mind toward a frame of consciousness tied to a specific benefit. While meditation isn't easily mastered, research shows the relaxation response attained through the practice of meditating offers results including:

As a community service, Learn to Meditate will offer a community service event with its Meditation for Beginners Class offered Saturday, Oct. 12 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m. at 201 S. Bell Blvd., Suite 104, Cedar Park, TX 78613.

The beginners class teaches the basics of meditation for understanding and self-realization and is free and open to the public. For more information, please click HERE.

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Beginners Learn Basics And Benefits Of Meditation - Patch.com

Churches that use the revised common lectionary will likely read from the ancient prophet Habakkuk this weekend during worship.

The passage begins: O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you Violence! and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. (Habakkuk 1: 2-3)

This passage was on my mind this week when I attended a chapel service led by a group of impassioned students at a local Christian high school.

The theme of the service centered on care of Gods creation, and the students shared their concerns for the future of our planet. They also showed a short clip from Swedish teenager Greta Thunbergs address to the United Nations Climate Action Summit last week. In it, Thunberg took world leaders to task for the prioritizing economic expansion over environmental preservation. During her comments, she stridently said, How dare you! to a room full of adults whom she sees as passive in the face of a climate crisis. I cannot help but hear Habakkuks cry How long, O Lord? in Thunbergs appeal for action.

After Thunbergs public comments, many dismissed and attempted to discredit her, calling her disturbed and obsessed. For centuries, the same has been said about those who share a prophetic witness.

Habakkuk was disturbed and railed against what he perceived as Gods passiveness in the face of violence and wrongdoing. Yet, in the midst of frustration and dismay, the prophet recommitted to waiting for God to answer his cries for help. When God responded, Habakkuk was instructed to write the vision and make it plain so that all could see and understand what would one day be. God even assured the discouraged prophet that his patience would be rewarded. Habakkuks anger and anxiety turned into trust in Gods promises.

Thunberg shared honest and forthright grief about the environmental violence she sees being committed. Yet, she also shared a vision of hope. She gave voice to anger and sadness at the complacency of world leaders and begged them to make positive change. She confessed that she holds out a hope that they will be moved to action and refuses to believe that the adults who hear her will succumb to the evil of inaction.

This is similar to where Habakkuk lands. Despite his lingering questions and difficulties, he ends his complaint with praise of God singing: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength. (Habakkuk 3: 18-19) We are called to do the same.

I, too, will rejoice. I rejoice in the prophetic witness of impassioned young people who challenge adults out of complacency. I celebrate faithful witnesses to the goodness of Gods creation. And, I delight in the steadfast example of all the righteous who live simply by faith.

May we all have the courage to share a message of Gods love for creation through our words and our deeds.

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MEDITATION: Share a message of God's love for creation - Hickory Daily Record

PORT TOWNSEND Keri Perderson will lead a meditation retreat, On the Path of Awakening from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Port Townsend Yacht Club, 2503 Washington St.

The retreat is sponsored by the Port Townsend Sangha and is appropriate for both beginning and experienced meditators.

Admission is $30 per day, however organizers state that no one will be excluded by the inability to pay.

For more information, visit http://www.ptsangha.org.

Unity speaker

PORT ANGELES Mark Stanton Welch will present The Season Within: Responding to the Call of Autumn at 10:30 a.m. Sunday.

Welch will be the guest speaker at Unity in the Olympics, 2917 E. Myrtle Ave. Sunday service begins at 10 a.m.

Child care is available.

For more information, call 360-457-3981 or visit http://www.unityintheolympics.org.

Lecture series

PORT ANGELES Bob Larsen will present Land Use and Agriculture: Dilemmas and Opportunities from 11 a.m. to noon Sunday.

The presentation is part of the weekly series Climate Warming as a Discipleship Challenge held in the downstairs fellowship hall at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, 301 E. Lopez Ave.

The lecture series is free and open to the public.

For more information, call the church at 360-452-2323, email [emailprotected] or visit http://www.go2trinity.org.

Animal blessing

PORT ANGELES St. Andrews Episcopal Church and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church will hold a blessing of the animals at 2 p.m. Sunday.

The annual event will be held at the Gateway Center, 123 E. Front St.

Dog and cat treats will be provided, along with prayers for pets of all denominations.

Donations of pet food or non-clumping cat litter will be collected for the Olympic Peninsula Humane Society.

Evensong service

PORT TOWNSEND The Rev. Simon Ruth deVoil will offer music for an Evensong service from 4 p.m. to 4:45 p.m. Sunday.

The free service will be held in Chetzemoka Park, 1000 Jackson St.

Evensong is a contemplative, Celtic, Christian service.

The public is welcome.

Yom Kippur service

PORT ANGELES Congregation Olympic Bnai Shalom will observe Yom Kippur on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, marks the end of the Jewish High Holy Days and includes fasting from sunset Erev, or Eve of, Yom Kippur through sunset on Yom Kippur.

They will hold a no-host dinner at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Cafe Garden, 1506 E. First St.

Kol Nidre service will be held at 7 p.m. at Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, 1033 N. Barr Road.

A morning Torah service will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday and Torah study will be held at 2 p.m.

The afternoon, Yizkor and Neilah services will begin at 3:30 p.m.

At sundown, the congregation will hold a dairy potluck to break their fast.

All the services Wednesday will be held at Olympic Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Supper and show

PORT ANGELES The Peninsula Evangelical Friends Church will host Supper and a Show at 6 p.m. Wednesday. Friends will serve homemade soup, bread, rolls and cookies at Friends Church, 1291 N. Barr Road.

During dinner they will show the 2010 film Wonders of Gods Creation: Planet Earth. This family-friendly film screening is free and open to the public.

For more information, call Diane Hanes at 360-417-0422 or visit http://www.pefcpa.com.

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NEWS BRIEFS: Meditation retreat planned for Saturday, Sunday in Port Townsend and other items - Peninsula Daily News

A hundred pages of reading, a lab report due tomorrow, an extra shift at work. It all tends to pile up on top of busy students.

Personally, I have struggled with anxiety since I was in middle school. I began meditating freshman year of high school, and since then, meditation has become a powerful tool for me to calm my nerves and slow down my thought process. It helps me take things one step at a time and escape from the mental claustrophobia that anxiety brings along with it.

Stress and anxiety are barriers that the majority of students experience during their time in college. According to a study by the American College Health Association, 63.4% of college students felt overwhelming anxiety within the past 12 months.

UT is not excluded from this anxiety epidemic. 76% of the issues that students seek help for at the Counseling and Mental Health Center (CMHC) are anxiety related, making it the largest category of issues the center encounters. Given that these symptoms are so ubiquitous, students should consider meditation to regulate their stress, and UT should provide a more concrete way for them to do so.

Although anxiety and stress are common features of the human experience, they often cause mood or personality changes and can detract from students academic performance. According to integrated health counselor Geeti Mahajan, there are a plethora of components that contribute to student anxiety, such as academic distress, living away from home, personal relationships and even the prospect of graduation.

Given that stress-inducing experiences are an unavoidable part of attending UT, meditation can provide desperately needed, medication-less relief for many students. Meditation can be performed for a short amount of time in any location without the need for any equipment, making it an accessible option for all students.

The mental benefits of meditation are varied, but they all make an important contribution to our calmness and awareness.

The goal is to be more mindful and aware of whats going on so you can take knowledgeable and wise actions to help yourself, Mahajan said. Breath regulation when meditating has a deep effect on the nervous system and helps to calm people down, so they have more insight and awareness to their problems and theyre able to find solutions more clearly for themselves.

Meditation is unique for everyone, and theres no right way to do it. It generally consists of sitting upright in a quiet space and devoting all brain activity to focusing on the breath and the body.

Electrical engineering junior Ashwin Hareesh experienced these positive benefits after meditating regularly.

Just being quiet and staying away from technology and everything else helps you regulate your brain so youre not so frantic all the time, Hareesh said.The break really helps and reduces my anxiety, at least.

UT could make a more distinctive push towards encouraging students to integrate meditation as a healthy coping mechanism through a required stress management skills course, as well as further publicizing meditation workshops already offered through CMHC.

Clinical nursing associate professor Rosa Schnyer, who teaches a stress management course to undergraduates, supports this kind of integration.

I would be a really big advocate for having a part of orientation or a first-year requirement dedicated to helping students gain the skills for emotional regulation because students could really use them at that age, Schnyer said.

The need for positive coping mechanisms for anxiety goes beyond academic performance and mood. Some students have found strategies to manage their anxiety, but many are at risk of developing bigger problems.

A lot of them may have maladaptive behaviors, especially if they are first year students, like drinking or using other substances to numb themselves, Schyner said.

The rise in mental health disorders among students and youth is alarming, and it is imperative that we find safe and healthy methods to cope with them. Meditation can provide this kind of relief for UT students if our community and University makes it a priority. So if youre stressed, put meditation to use and discover your inner zen.

Lazaroski is an international relations and global studies sophomore from Dallas.

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Try meditation to regulate anxiety, improve emotional regulation skills - UT The Daily Texan

A high school Spanish teacherintroduced me to the practice of meditation. A few times a semester, he would begin or end his class with it.

During these sessions, he would suggest that my classmates and I sit in a relaxed position, head on our desks or back straight, with our eyes closed. And then hed pace the room, guiding us through imagery that would lull us into a meditative state.

Although Im convinced he was a deep believer in the benefits of mediation, I think he was just as interested in its fringe benefit: calming rowdy students.

This experience came to mind a few weeks ago when I had breakfast with Dr. Raghav Govindarajanbefore the CMTA Patient/Family Conference started. We were talking about the anxiety, stress, and muscle pain that are symptoms of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). He brought up meditation a topic that he went into further during his conference presentation.

Ive been trying to incorporate intentional meditation practices into my life ever since.

Mounting evidence underscores the benefits of meditation. Some studies show it can reduce blood pressure, stress, pain, and inflammation symptoms of particular interest to many CMT-ers.

Ive never been a skeptic of what I understand to be a form of mindfulness meditation. I may not have known about all of its benefits, but I always felt that going into a meditative state was a nice way to relax. I just never called it meditating when I was younger.

I used it in high school marching band practice during extended periods of parade rest, a position we defaulted to while our band director gave attention to other sections. I would stand with my left hand at the small of my back, right hand holding my trumpet, and my feet shoulder-width apart.

I would close my eyes and focus on my breathing. Time would seem to slow. Id feel my muscles tense and relax as they worked to keep me upright and straight against the wind.

When my band director would call us to attention, Id open my eyes and feel them dilate to take in a world I had almost forgotten.

Ive also found meditation to be a nice escape during dental appointments.

Despite my appreciation for mindfulness meditation, I never incorporated it into my life with any regularity. However, Dr. Govindarajan suggested at the conference that its important to be proactive with self-care.

Ive tried to meditate a bit more during the past two weeks and have developed a few practices:

I havent noticed any big changes in my life, but I do have some small observations.

Ive found its a nice way to check up on your body both physically and mentally. Practicing mindfulness meditation reminded me of a conversation I had with my therapist friend. She told me that being mindful of our emotions can help us better manage them before they get out of control.

Meditating more frequently also reminds me of how antithetical it is to the idea of emptying your mind a thought I find off-putting. Mindfulness meditation as I understand it is allowing yourself to focus on the present instead of worrying about deadlines, schedules, or regrets.

When I focus on the sensations I feel within my body while it is in a relaxed state, its easy to keep track of how my body is that day. Some days, I would notice things I might not have without that moment to myself. Oh, Im slightly constipated, I would realize some days. Other days it would be, Wow, my feet are throbbing after that workout.

I cant say I have experienced anything life-changing during my short experiments with meditation, but Im interested to see where this practice takes me. If nothing else, I think meditation helps me sleep better.

***

Note: Charcot-Marie-Tooth News is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Charcot-Marie-Tooth News or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Charcot-Marie-Tooth.

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Trying Meditation as a Form of Self-care - Charcot-Marie-Tooth News

It takes a while before a human face appears in Angela Schanelecs I Was At Home, But, which opens on a static scene of nature. When it begins to aim on human faces, the exact details of their lives are left vaguely clarified, leaving puzzle pieces for the audience to sort out. The movie wears its indefinite nature just as its deliberately incomplete title.

On the streets of Berlin, a widowed mother, Astrid (Maren Eggert), appears to sleepwalk through her life. Pieces of scenes suggest off-screen chaos without clarifying the context. The mother arrives at the office and flings her arms around her child(Jakob Lassalle), as if he had been lost or a runaway. Later, the mother speaks with a teacher, pleading him for understanding, feeling they are discussing his expulsion. She also undergoes the mundane task of purchasing a secondhand bike, before arguing with the seller (Alan Williams). There are disparate subplots that do not orbit the core plot, such as a classroom rehearsal of Hamlet and a teacher (Franz Rogowski) breaking up with his girlfriend.

Uncertainty of context infuses the film. Its difficult to pinpoint an emotional core until halfway through when the mother slinks herself down on a burial plot and reveals that her theatre director husband died two years earlier. It becomes evident that unexamined grief simmers throughout her going-ons and the recent aftermath of a lost child. To some extent, she has found ways to move on, such as dating her childs tennis coach, but her sorrow insinuates itself in unsavory outbursts: one simmering one where she criticizes a professors (Dane Komljen) filmmaking choices, another where she argues with the secondhand bike seller with seething frustration as the latter tries to accommodate her, and then in her most explosive tantrum, she kicks her children out of the apartment simply because they made a mess and rebuffs their attempts at affection. Schanelec sharply depicts a middle-class single motherhood in crisis. Astrids irrational vindictiveness and rejection of her childrens embraces is followed by an image of maternal tenderness, with a Piet image of Astrid embracing her youngest as if pleading for forgiveness without words.

This is a movie that holds its breath and takes its sweet time before exhaling. The viewing experience is a succession of lingering shots rather than a deep dive. Toward the end, theres a contemplative moment engulfed in a natural light where an older sibling treads through a bubbling stream with his young sibling on his back. In perhaps the most dialogue-dense scene in the film, Astrid criticizes the professor on the artifice of its casting choices, it seems to externalize Schanelecs self-awareness of her chosen ambiguity.

The films portrait starts to assemble piece-by-piece. Not all puzzle pieces fit a cohesive whole of I Was At Home, But and they dont need to. It forgoes the cinematic ideals of narrative completeness and takes its scattered parts in stride. It radiates a reverence for the interiority of its players, how they are living passor throughan internal crisis, allowing a distant view without prying in. Arguably for many, it is so stuck on the ellipses to have an impact, even one that can creep up. But I couldnt help but to inhale and exhale with the film.

/Film Rating: 7 out of 10

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'I Was at Home, But...' Review: A Stark Meditation on Grief and Life [NYFF 2019] - /FILM

Bay Area locals hike through Lands End with wireless headphones as part of a silent hike series put on by composer Murray Hidary.

Bay Area locals hike through Lands End with wireless headphones as part of a silent hike series put on by composer Murray Hidary.

Photo: Dianne De Guzman / SFGATE

Bay Area locals hike through Lands End with wireless headphones as part of a silent hike series put on by composer Murray Hidary.

Bay Area locals hike through Lands End with wireless headphones as part of a silent hike series put on by composer Murray Hidary.

Culture of technology is funding the self-care industry with silent retreats and meditation

I don't meditate.

I don't say namaste, unless forced to. It's been years since I've taken a yoga class.

Yet, here I was, with a group of strangers. On a silent hike. Practicing mindfulness.

It wasn't a hike in complete silence, mind you I have yet to step into that calm, hellacious-sounding-to-me realm but it was quiet enough for me. Gathered at Land's End on a September afternoon, a group of locals were taking part in a hike by MindTravel, a silent hiking adventure thought up by composer Murray Hidary.

Together, the group wears wireless, Bluetooth headphones, which pipe through Hidary's piano compositions as he leads us through the hike. We're all instructed not to speak to one another, but instead to enjoy the journey, be calm and present.

That request of "being present" seemed ridiculous prior to the silent hike. I'm present everywhere, I mused, (mostly) unironically. I'm on Slack, Instagram and holding conversations. All. The. Time. I'm fielding phone notifications constantly: news alerts, text messages, the Latest Twitter Outrage I know about it all.

Yet somewhere among the trees and ocean and lilting music, I was there. Not seeking out my phone. Disconnecting from the world and listening to music, Hidary's calming words sounding as we wound our way to the Land's End labyrinth.

By the end, I wondered, "Did I really buy into this? Is everyone really buying into this mindfulness stuff?"

Apparently, I did buy into it, mostly. But I'm not the only one.

For Hidary, what he's noticed with the appeal of silent hikes like his, is that beyond the personal connection with nature, and past the personal worries of work or family, there's a need for folks to move away from the stresses of life outside of one's self.

"There's something broader that I feel is happening," Hidary told me. "I think it has to do with more global stressors that people are feeling anxious about. The political landscape is one that's quite divisive these days, and I think people are feeling that more than they might usually, in their own way, and not just because of the ideologies but because of the impact it has on their lives directly the conversations with families that create a lot of stress around political issues.

"I think issues like climate change are becoming so palpable now that it creates this existential anxiety for people, and I think all these things add up," he added. "The technology revolution has the effect of creating anxiety because some people feel like they're getting left behind because of it, or they're afraid of being left behind. So I think all these elements conspire to create an environment that is creating more stress for people than than they know what to do with."

It doesn't quite seem coincidental then that the self-care industry has ramped up enough to be estimated to draw in $11 billion in revenue as noted in a 2018 Harvard Business Review article.People are drawn to things that promise mindfulness and peace; meditation, while a centuries-old practice, is being co-opted by apps like Calm and Headspace and priced to remind tranquility-desiring folks that (maybe) it can happen for them.

It also doesn't seem to be a coincidence that events like the ones Sound Meditation SF throws where masses meditate together in a "sound bath" sells out within hours. The meditation juggernaut alone is commanding $1 billion in revenue per year, and the percentage of those meditating has increased to 14.2 percent in 2017 from 4.1 percent in 2012, according to Fast Company.

We are burnt out and trying to recoup that calm we all feel we should have, throwing money at it in every way possible, even if it's the simplest thing we can turn to. Namely, meditation and silence.

Brook Stone is an instructor and integrative psychotherapist at UCSF, and she teaches meditation to caregivers and people with cancer. She's practiced mindfulness meditation for over 40 years, saying the practice is not about escaping, but "it's about gaining the equanimity to face yourself, and face life directly, and to havethe poise and courage to do that."

"People are hungering for something," said Stone."They're hungering for some peace; they're hungry for some calm. They're hungering for something that gives them a fresh perspective, a sense of whether it's solace or refuge, a place to go where they feel less alienated and in touch with something deeper and that it's not just satisfying that needs of the ego.

"Our own self concerns are endless, and at some point, you come to realize that that is not the route to happiness. No matter how much you feed that ... it just generates more wants. So in a way, when you sit down and you encounter yourself, it also stops that momentum and it puts you in touch with something greater than yourself."

Bruce Davis is the head of Silent Stay Meditation & Retreat Center in Vacaville, where folks seek out and pay for days of glorious silence, and he has been running nondenominational silent retreats since the '80s. If you asked him why people are seeking silent retreats today versus back then, he mused that in the '80s most people were looking for something spiritual, especially those who had become disenfranchised from organized religion.

Nature is a large part of the silent retreats at Silent Stay Retreat Center in Vacaville, where guests are invited to take hikes and meditate among other activities on the property. Two group meditations a day are required, while the rest of the stay is up to the individual to decide on what to do.

Nature is a large part of the silent retreats at Silent Stay...

These days, however, most were seeking downtime, a chance to nurture themselves, Davis said. Of the 40 percent of local people coming to his retreats these days, he guessed that half of those come from tech to stay. And in a lot of ways, that sentiment seems to track: When someone as tech-embedded as Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is seeking out 10 days of silent meditation (and there are others like him), it's perhaps one of the more conclusive signs that perhaps all of the tech kids are in need of a time out.

Prior to 2012, Davis and his wife Ruth lived in Italy, running silent retreats together in Assisi, returning to California to be close to family. But Davis also cited the emergence of technology as another reason for wanting to return, looking to help others through their retreat.

"We felt the whole technology thing was happening and we wanted to be a balance to that," Davis said. "There's so much going on in their head and there's not much support for the heart."

"We're surprised how popular it's become, when we first started [doing our silent retreats] nobody was doing this," Davis later added. "We just feel a call to do it, and since we've come back in 2012 we're surprised how popular it is, there's all kinds of silent retreats."

::

Meaghan Joynt is one of those who have sought that "time out," so to speak. Although her first visit to Silent Stay was a mistake of sorts her winery weekend plans thwarted by a failure to read the fine print of her booked stay Joynt was already a meditation practitioner and decided to give into the silent retreat. Joynt said she "fell in love" with the experience and has returned to silent retreats (both at Silent Stay and other places) repeatedly since, calling the retreats an antidote to anxiety.

Despite growing up in New York City and moving to San Francisco in more recent years, just a few months ago she moved to Half Moon Bay "We are overstimulated beyond belief," she said of city life saying she moved purposefully "to be in an environment that is not so stimulating."

"We're all realizing even if we don't know what it is [and] you can't put your finger on what it is that our senses are overwhelmed with all of this information and technology that's coming in at us, sound and sight, and it's really overwhelming and we need a complete rest," Joynt said.

"We live in an Age of Anxiety," Joynt later added. "So even though I don't struggle with anxiety from a clinical perspective, I'm a pretty sensitive person and being around anxiety all the time is disconcerting and impacts me. So if I can bring myself to a different level of consciousness and peace and depth of heartfelt love, then that's going to impact those around you, and a lot of it is in unseen ways."

JoAnn'E Verry is another client of Silent Stay. She travels to Vacaville from her home base in Las Vegas, where she runs a real estate business, and co-owns a sign business with her husband.For her, the silent retreats have been a "tune-up" for her, likening the experience to a more tangible, understandable thing (auto repair).

"There's a lot of hostility in the world right now and I think that people just want to kind of quiet that chatter down and the anger, and feel included and feel like you can breathe. I think that's a lot of it," Verry said. "Everyone has different experiences, so you could talk to 10 people and [their experiences] might be the polar opposite but, personally, it just gives the time to really reflect. And when that silence happens, for me it was profound, but really any answers I had just became clear as day."

Verry said she is attempting to make a trek to Silent Stay four times a year, solo, with plans to also bring others on group trips. Verry's goal is to do a three-month retreat, she said, likening that experience to an engine overhaul, rather than a tune-up.

"With the technology and stuff, [a silent retreat is] a gift that you give to yourself to be with yourself, reconnect with yourself and recharge," Verry said. "When I come out of silent retreat, especially those last ones, I had so much energy and was so motivated and I was so clear. That's the other thing I'd say the clarity is huge."

"People are looking for connection through their devices and that actually creates a profound sense of isolation," Stone said. "So when you're in a public place and everybody's looking down at their phone, put your phone down and just connect with people. Or smile at someone. I mean, these things are so basic, but actually to connect with your world and get out of your own head that's sort of mindfulness in action. 'Where am I? What's happening around me?' That connecting in with the world. So it's not just meditation to escape and go into yourself, but it's meditation to help you become more present to yourself and the world."

Have I booked my silent retreat yet? No. But I'm considering it more than I used to.

Dianne de Guzman is a Digital Senior Editor at SFGATE. Email: dianne.deguzman@sfgate.com.

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Culture of technology is funding the self-care industry with silent retreats and meditation - SF Gate

"Instead of carrying a pistol at our waist so we can feel safe, what we need is to do a better job of managing our emotions, training young people and adults to be balanced," explains Cala as he invites us to download his meditation app.

MIAMI, Oct. 2, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Through an ad on the screens at New York's Times Square, strategist and communicator Ismael Cala has taken up the problem of guns in the United States, proposing meditation to balance people's minds.

"Armed or meditating? I know what I want: Escala Meditando, the new app from Ismael Cala", says the ad.

This year more than 300 mass shootings have occurred, more than 42,000 incidents with guns and more than 11,000 people dead and 22,000 wounded, according to the organization Gun Violence Archive.

On October 1st, the "Guardian" program in Florida entered into force, which allows teachers to go to school armed.

"There are still people who think that the solution to shootings is to carry a weapon to defend yourself! Instead of carrying a pistol at our waist so we can feel safe, what we need is to do a better job of managing our emotions, training young people and adults to be balanced," Cala explains.

He called on people to download his meditation appto their cellphones: "With many balanced minds, the scanners would vanish from school entrances. And no one would have to wear a bullet-proof vest to the shopping center, excuse the exaggeration to underscore this tragic problem."

Meditation is the path to enlightenment. According to a study published in Biological Psychiatry, conscious meditation allows for greater communication between the parts of the brain related to stress; in addition to greater activation of the areas involving concentration and tranquility.

After many years of study, Ismael has created Escala Meditando, his own app for meditation, personal growth and mindfulness, totally in Spanish, in a joint venture with the company Kingmagination.

Cala guides meditations for people to achieve their maximum potential and equilibrium between body and mind, as well as to drive them to overcome their physical and emotional ailments.

Escala Meditandohas two categories: Building Wellbeing and Conscious Equilibrium. It also contains free meditations.

Escala Meditandois available for Android and iOS and also via @escalameditando on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

ABOUT ISMAEL CALA

A life and business strategist; he hosts and directs the interview show CALA, which is aired in some twenty countries. For five and a half years he was the prime-time host of CALA on CNN en Espaol. A businessman and social entrepreneur. Author of eight bestsellers on themes of leadership, entrepreneurship and personal development, including El poder de escuchar ('The power of listening'), and Despierta con Cala('Wake up with Cala').He was born in Santiago de Cuba in 1969, and holds a degree in Art History from Oriente University. He is the co-author of the book "Beat the Curve," with Brian Tracy. He graduated from the School of Communication at York University in Toronto, and has a diploma from Seneca College in Television Production. He is President and founder of Cala Enterprises Corporation and the Ismael Cala Foundation

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SOURCE Cala Enterprises

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Armed or meditating? Ismael Cala brings the problem of guns in the U.S. to the screens of Times Square - P&T Community

When I used to think about mindfulness, I would groan internally, imagining someone sitting under a tree for hours with their eyes closed. This transformed into a deeper dislike for mindfulness when my parents forced me to try it. At thirteen, sitting still for an hour seemed impossible.

Lately, Ive been delving into Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, an approach developed by Marsha M. Linehan that focuses on the idea that two opposing ideas can be true at the same time. For example, Im working hard on being mindful and I need to try harder to be mindful can be true at the same time. Id heard that mindfulness helps concentration and mood, but there was no way I could make myself meditate for more than three days in a row. I told my therapist right away that meditation brings a sour taste in my mouth. She laughed, rolled her eyes, and let me know that she hears that all the time and that mindfulness is way more than meditation.

Mindfulness shouldnt be reduced to meditation. Instead, mindfulness is about being in the present moment without judging or getting attached to it. Being mindful seems like a difficult task, but people should be more knowledgeable about mindfulness and incorporate it into their daily life.

The goals of mindfulness are to manage suffering, notice happy moments, increase your focus, and be present without being attached to the moment. Mindfulness can help you in moments of distress by allowing you to ground yourself to the moment. When youre feeling anxious, you can notice your five senses and remind yourself where you are, what you are doing and how you feel. When you are feeling sad, mindfulness can help you recognize moments of happiness. You might not be able to get out of bed today, but you might notice a beautiful butterfly fluttering outside your window, and that could bring a moment of joy. Mindfulness can help you increase your focus on responsibilities because it forces you to be in the present moment without multitasking. The last, and probably the hardest, goal of mindfulness is understanding that moments are fleeting. As humans, we often tend to attach to moments, especially negative ones. By realizing moments are passing, we can take a step back and recognize that the feelings and thoughts we are having at this moment are not forever and they will change.

DBT uses three approaches to mindfulness. The first encourages a wise thinking state, and the second and third describe how to think and act in mindful ways. I will explore wise thinking practices and how they can be applied in everyday life. People can use wise thinking by considering both the facts and their feelings about the facts. Wise thinking is an effective technique that helps us to be mindful by it engaging the brain and forcing it to be in the present. It can be practiced regularly and easily whenever we have a moment. Wise thinking is a good way to sharpen mindfulness skills.

According to Marsha M. Linehan, there are three stages of thinking. People might use one specific way of thinking or a combination of both. The three ways of thinking are emotional thinking, logical thinking, and wise thinking. Emotional thinking tends to be based on feelings, and logical thinking tends to be based on facts. Using a combination of these ways of thinking could help with decision making, because making decisions is hard. I used to use a pro-cons list, but I quickly realized that a pro-cons list can get out of hand and overwhelming when there are so many options. Also, it stopped me from being able to engage in the present moment because I was constantly worrying about the decision I had to make and the impact it could have on me. I now make a wise thinking T-chart. One one side is the emotional thinking and the other side is logical thinking. After writing the T-chart, I consider both aspects and then make a wise decision.

We can integrate emotional and logical thinking and then use wise thinking to be mindful of our decisions and circumstances. Wise thinking incorporates both emotional and logical thinking to make a decision based on feelings and facts, since both are valid and important. A person who thinks wisely finds balance while making decisions and understands the physical and emotional consequences of their decisions.

Now, you might be thinking that there isnt always time to make a T-chart and write down all decisions, because some decisions have to be made very quickly. Once you practice making the T-charts and developing a wise thinking solution, it will become easier. Another thing I do is tell my significant other and friends about wise thinking so they can remind me to use it when I am stressed about making a decision. There is power in asking for help.

If making decisions is stressful, try this method and think through your options. You might find yourself being surprised about how wise your decision making can get to be with practice. There are a lot of benefits to being mindful like improved concentration and elevated mood. You dont have to meditate to practice mindfulness. All you have to do is take ten minutes to make a T-chart about any upcoming decisions and practice being in a wise thinking state of mind. Practice might not make perfect, but it does make wise.

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Mindfulness is More Than Meditation - Swarthmore College The Phoenix Online

As the first African American woman in Congress, Shirley Chisholm once said, If they dont give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair. And that was exactly what Julio Rivera did when he built an application dedicated to the Latinx and Black community.

I noticed myself feeling disconnected, isolated, and more depressed, so I decided to look online to see if there were any digital resources, wrote Rivera in a statement. To my surprise, I found very little and I was even more surprised when I talked to other folks in the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color community, they felt the same way.

Rivera put his knowledge in software engineering to the test and created Liberate Meditation, after he noticed that the wellness industry is not inclusive enough with the people of color. Deep inside I felt this was a calling of service from a higher power. A calling to start not just a company but to help amplify the efforts of making the dharma and sangha more accessible for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. I want people all over the world to feel that same feeling of safety, connection, empowerment, and hope, said Rivera.

The meditation app mission is to support the Black, Indigenous, and POC community to thrive with love while healing racial trauma and wounds of internalized oppression.

The Liberate Meditation team assured that is actively working on ways to cultivate environments in-person and virtually for its users always offering a wide range of content, and covering topics to elevate the meditation practice, plus developing compassion for people

We want to help empower people, not only to meditate, but to show them that theres something you can do about your suffering, Rivera said to Buddhist magazine, Lions Roar. We can help each other get free and be liberated. Rivera, who identifies as Afro-Latino, also added that he want folks of color all over the world to know that they are not alone.

According to the company, the teachers are building long-term 1-on-1 relationships with the users or students. The app available for Apple and Android offers to users the possibility of searching the content either by Ancestors, The Body, Gratitude, Love, Micro-aggressions, Mindfulness, and Self-worth meditation or by the teachers name.

We have a long way to go but I believe our meditation app is just the first step to fulfilling our mission, Rivera added. We believe in a future where the BIPOC community is moving as a unit to help us collectively heal and be free. We believe this is not just a Liberate effort but a community effort so this is a call to action, said the founder inviting al the community to share the app with friends and family.

To download the app to your iPhone click here; to download for Android click here.

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Meet Julio Rivera: The Man who Wants to Bring Meditation to Our People Through Tech - BELatina